Bankless

Bitcoin is back at Biden-era prices, ETFs are bleeding, and Saylor just did the thing he said never to do: sell. Ryan and David unpack whether crypto has one more drop left, what trillion-dollar IPOs reveal about broken capital markets, and why their ETH debate may be the real fight for Ethereum’s future.

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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

3:07 Markets

https://x.com/aggrnews/status/2063954465678410121

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/06/01/analysts-agree-strategy-s-bitcoin-sale-was-immaterial-differ-on-future-signals

https://imgur.com/SDyYiQS

https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2063964293478101014 

https://x.com/zoomerfied/status/2062288919853490553

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bitmine-immersion-technologies-announces-pricing-of-upsized-series-a-perpetual-preferred-stock-offering-302792359.html

https://thedefiant.io/news/tradfi-and-fintech/bitmine-files-300m-preferred-stock-offering-9-5-yield-eth-treasury

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/06/03/tom-lee-s-bitmine-to-offer-preferred-stock-with-9-5-dividend-seeking-to-raise-usd300-million

https://imgur.com/tvIDofV

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2065049515384582205

https://polymarket.com/event/fed-rate-hike-in-2026

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/11/ecb-eurozone-interest-rates-iran-war-inflation

30:11 IPO Season

https://app.lighter.xyz/trade/SPACEX

https://app.lighter.xyz/trade/ANTHROPIC

https://app.lighter.xyz/trade/OPENAI

36:29 Bankless Guys Are Fighting

https://x.com/steweycrypto/status/2062796930326094216

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2062598415482245528

https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2062599824491372906

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2062612677466202281

https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2062644365533622705

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2062669134614466707

https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2062674368195686809

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2062745848673427471

https://x.com/Tommyb631/status/2062613008304451756

55:39 Morpho Flips Aave

https://morpho.org/blog/morpho-association-raises-175m-to-build-the-open-credit-network-for-the-world/

https://x.com/0xLouisT/status/2063963380000407881

58:04 ZEC Vulnerability & Jason Calacanis’ Crypto-to-AI Tweet

https://x.com/Jason/status/2064083020257055193

coindesk.com/.../zcash-plummets-30-as-developer-reveals-a-major-bug

forum.zcashcommunity.com/.../orchard-counterfeiting-vulnerability

1:02:55 Hester Peirce Almost Out

https://x.com/hesterpeirce/status/2064768651488608612

https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/peirce-remarks-chamber-commerce-capital-markets-summit-060926

1:06:03 World Cup Starts

https://polymarket.com/event/world-cup-winner

1:07:26 Closing & Disclaimers

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Hyperliquid has become the breakout perp exchange of crypto. But is the market missing its biggest competitor? Delphi’s Flip and DeFi investor Will Price join David to make the case for Lighter, a ZK-powered Ethereum L2 with zero-fee retail trading, white-glove distribution, real-world asset perps, and a token buying back revenue at a surprising rate. Is LIT just a Hyperliquid beta trade, or is it one of the most underpriced bets in onchain finance?

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🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

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🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

3:05 Why Lighter Is Different

5:32 ZK Rollup Advantages

6:46 Charging Traders, Not Retail

12:07 Fairness Without MEV

14:50 Why Hyperliquid Can’t Copy

18:03 Distribution Beyond Crypto

22:08 Latency & Flow Quality

26:50 Technical Edge Across the Stack

30:31 RWAs & Pre-IPO Markets

34:07 U.S. Perps Market Play

36:05 Back-End For Big Brokers

38:28 Bootstrapping Liquidity

41:54 Lighter As A Platform

46:34 Token Value & Buybacks

50:11 Market Cap Versus FDV

53:02 Valuing LIT Properly

57:51 Cracked Team & Better Comms

58:13 Joining The Lighter Community

58:51 What Comes Next

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RESOURCES

Will Price

https://x.com/will__price

Trevor Flipper

https://x.com/trevor_flipper

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

AI is quickly becoming the interface through which people think, work, and make decisions—but most users have no idea how much personal data they're handing over in the process. Jon and Jesse from Venice join David to make the case for privacy-first AI, explain why Venice is aiming to become a mainstream consumer AI brand, and explore how $VVV and DIEM transform inference into a crypto-economic primitive.
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🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless
---
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
1:12 Why Private AI Matters
3:01 The AI Data Honeypot
6:07 Venice’s Consumer AI Ambition
8:01 Beating the Big AI Labs
10:19 Model Aggregation and Agentic Chat
12:29 Open Source, Closed Source, and Private Grok
17:14 Who Actually Needs Private AI?
21:58 Venice’s User Base
23:53 What Drove Venice’s Recent Growth
27:21 $VVV, DIEM, and Tokenized Inference
29:00 Where Venice Gets Its Compute
32:17 Bonding Curves and DIEM Monetary Policy
39:14 Real Tokenomics, Not Just a Pie Chart
45:46 AI Agents Need Inference to Exist
52:54 ShapeShift DNA Inside Venice
55:53 Regulation, AI, and Individual Rights
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RESOURCES
Jon ShapeShift
https://x.com/JonShapeShift
Jesse Proudman
https://x.com/jesseproudman
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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
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Bitcoin is bleeding, STRC is off peg, and Saylor’s “never sell” machine is facing its first real confidence test. David and Haseeb unpack whether Strategy can survive without selling BTC, why Bitmine’s ETH play may be stronger but riskier, and what select token strength, U.S. perps, and Coinbase’s Ethena deal reveal about crypto’s next phase.

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🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

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🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

1:37 Saylor & Strategy Confidence Test

https://x.com/zerohedge/status/2061418482344849785 

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2062475802252365980

https://x.com/glxyresearch/status/2062518531128746000

https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2062499179239215390

13:26 DATs Underwater & Bitmine Preferred Offering

https://x.com/lookonchain/status/2062011412965405059

https://x.com/zoomerfied/status/2062288919853490553

34:19 Major Weakness & Select Token Strength

40:45 U.S. Perps Get Greenlit

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/05/28/u-s-cftc-opens-crypto-perp-door-with-approval-of-first-regulated-firm

53:41 Coinbase Invests in Ethena

https://www.theblock.co/post/403403/coinbase-invests-ethena-open-market-purchase-ena-flags-new-partnership

57:13 Closing & Disclaimers

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

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Crypto policy in Washington has gone from punchline to power center. David sits down with Ron Hammond, Head of Policy and Advocacy at Wintermute, for a rare inside look at how crypto actually moves through DC: the SBF era, Elizabeth Warren’s anti-crypto army, Gary Gensler’s SEC, bank lobby pressure, Trump’s crypto conflicts, the Clarity Act fight, and why privacy and self-custody may be the next major battleground.

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🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Becoming “Captain Crypto” in DC
4:03 From Joke to Serious Political Force
6:19 Why Crypto Punches Above Its Weight
10:28 How SBF Captured Washington
13:26 The FTX Fallout in Capitol Hill
16:25 Elizabeth Warren and Crypto’s Proxy Wars
19:04 How DC Letters Actually Get Written
25:33 How Powerful Is the Crypto Lobby?
27:28 Who Is Playing on Crypto’s Side?
31:01 Democrats, Gensler, and the 2024 Lesson
35:07 The Gensler Era and Prometheum
41:21 Will Warren Ever Pivot?
43:20 Trump, the Crypto Ball, and World Liberty
49:30 Will the Clarity Act Pass?
53:30 Privacy, Self-Custody, and the Next Front
56:23 The Social Side of Crypto in DC

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RESOURCES

Ron Hammond
https://x.com/RonwHammond

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures